Hard Reset is a $30 PC-exclusive first-person shooter that brings to mind the …

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We enjoyed our time with the preview build of Hard Reset, the upcoming PC-only first-person shooter with seriously classical design. When we had the chance to put some questions to Klaudiusz Zych, the cofounder of (and a programmer at) Flying Wild Hog, we jumped at the chance. He shared his thoughts on quick-saves, game pricing, and in a few words explained why the game won't ship with any DRM.

Why doesn't the game support quick saves?

"The save system has a huge impact on gameplay, it changes the way people play the game. For example, if a game doesn't have checkpoints—this can be very frustrating when you forget to save often enough," Zych explained. "Quick saves on the other hand can ruin a game's difficulty and balance."

Zych pointed out that this makes the placement of the checkpoints very important, and he thinks the team nailed this aspect of the game.

Hard Reset

A small team creating a game and aiming it exclusively at PCs? It seems like a risky move financially. Zych disagrees. "Consoles are past their peak of interest. In my opinion everyone is moving their focus to mobile devices: iOS and Android mobiles, to social games on Facebook and finally to digital distribution on PCs," he told Ars. "The number of copies sold for all the other systems is not as big as for consoles, but the royalties a developer gets from the deal are much, much higher."

There is also an interesting middle point in the industry that may be somewhat awkward, but Flying Wild Hog sees as an opportunity. "The game industry is very polarized nowadays," Zych explained. "Big studios with budgets of tens of millions of dollars for a single game dominate the console market and small indie studios dominate digital distribution on mobiles and PCs. And almost no one does middle budget games."

Hard Reset is hoping to buck that trend. The game is coming only to the PC, uses an engine that Flying Wild Hog created from scratch, and will be sold via digital distribution platforms for $29.99. The team is banking on the idea that gamers are in the mood for a game that's less expensive than a big-budget release, but more expensive than the smaller games that sell for $10 and under. After playing through a few hours of the game, I'm in: it's clear that you're going to be able to see where your extra money is going.

Besides, Flying Wild Hog is on your side. My last question concerned the boogeyman of DRM. "I'm a gamer as well as a developer," Zych said. "And I hate DRM. So no DRM."

Hard Reset is coming to the PC on September 13. We should have a full review in time for launch.

Everything I've heard so far about the game has made me like it more and more. The matter of no DRM finally convinced me, and I just happily pre-purchased the game at Steam (10% discount). Looking forward to the release date, so I can finally experience the game myself!

No DRM... and yet, the only announced distribution platform so far is Steam. Does not compute. Is it going to be available via any other digital distribution platform that isn't just reselling the Steam version?

No DRM... and yet, the only announced distribution platform so far is Steam. Does not compute. Is it going to be available via any other digital distribution platform that isn't just reselling the Steam version?

Just registered to post this exact question!

Really want this game, but if it's going to turn up somewhere that allows for REALLY Drm-free games (e.g. Gamersgate) I'll wait for that.

No DRM... and yet, the only announced distribution platform so far is Steam. Does not compute. Is it going to be available via any other digital distribution platform that isn't just reselling the Steam version?

Just because it's using steam to distribute doesn't mean it's using Steamworks to lock it down. It could be possible that once you fetch it on steam you can just yank the files and play stand alone with out even starting steam.

Looks good, but I won't buy it if the dev is against quick-saves. I don't care if it ruins the dev's idea of balance or fun--not having quick-saves ruins my idea of balance or fun. I get enormous satisfaction and enjoyment out of re-playing encounters over and over again to find the best way of getting through them, and no QS feels like the dev is shaking his no-no finger at me. Might as well eliminate saving all together, along with the ability to pause or even quit the game--those ruin immersion, after all!

Looks good, but I won't buy it if the dev is against quick-saves. I don't care if it ruins the dev's idea of balance or fun--not having quick-saves ruins my idea of balance or fun. I get enormous satisfaction and enjoyment out of re-playing encounters over and over again to find the best way of getting through them, and no QS feels like the dev is shaking his no-no finger at me. Might as well eliminate saving all together, along with the ability to pause or even quit the game--those ruin immersion, after all!

I hope you never had satisfaction playing Mario or Zelda games because none of those support quicksave. They just have checkpoint.

@Koutousov: I agree with Pokrface. If I have to redo some stupid boss or so, I'd better be allowed to quicksave right before. And personally, not having QS is one thing I never understood about Mario/Zelda and other platformers, and never really played them. If you like that stuff ... sure, knock yourself out.

Those buying the game because of no DRM? You're all suckers. $30 for a DRM-free game just means he could have charged $10 with DRM. Stealing hurts everyone, because if 2/3rds of you steal this for free, I've got to pay 2/3rds more for my game. I have to subsidize your thievery. So, no, I won't buy a non-DRM game, it's bad value. Of course, a game with broken DRM is bad value, too, which is why consoles and Steam exist.

"I hope you never had satisfaction playing Mario or Zelda games because none of those support quicksave. They just have checkpoint."

Well, 90% of games or something ridiculous, are never finished. So, by not letting people adjust difficulty on the fly, they're just ensuring that no one finishes. Which might be fine. It's not like the game is a novel that has to be finished to be appreciated, after all. I'm sure they don't care if anyone 'experiences' their entire 'artwork', right? There's always cheat codes for the critics and aesthetes among us, right?

Pre-ordered as soon as I saw it available to do so on Steam. This game has been getting a crazy amount of press, the graphics engine looks impressive and the gameplay looks fun. While I'm not crazy about the lack of a quick save feature, I can live with it.

The economical price and complete lack of DRM are just icing on the cake at this point. Most important of all is the PC-centric ethos of the developers; after the scores of terrible console ports (not to mention a 360-code-laden Dead Island dev build pushed to Steam) it'll be nice to finally plunk down cash for a game developed specifically for PC gamers, by PC gamers.

I hope you never had satisfaction playing Mario or Zelda games because none of those support quicksave. They just have checkpoint.

It's a good thing that the PC, like the consoles for which those games were developed, never experiences crashes on account of unpatched code, driver problems, hardware issues, etc. Otherwise I'd be really irritated about having to replay a difficult portion because it wouldn't let me save afterwards.

I can't wait to see the review. It looks interesting, but I would like to see why I should buy this over another random shooter.

solomonrex wrote:

Those buying the game because of no DRM? You're all suckers. $30 for a DRM-free game just means he could have charged $10 with DRM. Stealing hurts everyone, because if 2/3rds of you steal this for free, I've got to pay 2/3rds more for my game. I have to subsidize your thievery. So, no, I won't buy a non-DRM game, it's bad value. Of course, a game with broken DRM is bad value, too, which is why consoles and Steam exist.

I'm pretty sure if it was $10 but came with DRM: A) that not everyone who would steal it at $30 DRM free would pay for it at $10, B) that it will still be stolen even with DRM, C) that it will not sell more than 3 times as many copies.

Those buying the game because of no DRM? You're all suckers. $30 for a DRM-free game just means he could have charged $10 with DRM. Stealing hurts everyone, because if 2/3rds of you steal this for free, I've got to pay 2/3rds more for my game. I have to subsidize your thievery. So, no, I won't buy a non-DRM game, it's bad value. Of course, a game with broken DRM is bad value, too, which is why consoles and Steam exist.

"I hope you never had satisfaction playing Mario or Zelda games because none of those support quicksave. They just have checkpoint."

Well, 90% of games or something ridiculous, are never finished. So, by not letting people adjust difficulty on the fly, they're just ensuring that no one finishes. Which might be fine. It's not like the game is a novel that has to be finished to be appreciated, after all. I'm sure they don't care if anyone 'experiences' their entire 'artwork', right? There's always cheat codes for the critics and aesthetes among us, right?

Those buying the game because of no DRM? You're all suckers. $30 for a DRM-free game just means he could have charged $10 with DRM. Stealing hurts everyone, because if 2/3rds of you steal this for free, I've got to pay 2/3rds more for my game. I have to subsidize your thievery. So, no, I won't buy a non-DRM game, it's bad value. Of course, a game with broken DRM is bad value, too, which is why consoles and Steam exist.

So you intentionally want to hurt developers who don't want their gamers to suffer from DRM because you have decided they won't make enough money!?There are NO PROOF WHATSOEVER AT ALL that DRM has ANY effect on piracy! ALL DRM WIL LBE BROKEN, and once it's broken it WILL be pirated just as much as if it hadn't had any! Adding DRM helps NOBODY!And again, you're assuming they're (and *everybody* else too) setting the price to reach a target profit. I'm however assuming they're simply just hoping for a certain sales number.

Also, it can not be stealing, and that's by the definition of both law and dictionaries. Nothing is taken away.

solomonrex wrote:Those buying the game because of no DRM? You're all suckers. $30 for a DRM-free game just means he could have charged $10 with DRM.

got any proof on those numbers? i mean anyone can pull numbers out of thier butt. 80% of pirates buy games they like. see no proof i have no idea how may ppl who pirate games just do it because demos suck or aren't provided, don't like drm, have no money, or are just dirty dirty thieves.

Those buying the game because of no DRM? You're all suckers. $30 for a DRM-free game just means he could have charged $10 with DRM. Stealing hurts everyone, because if 2/3rds of you steal this for free, I've got to pay 2/3rds more for my game. I have to subsidize your thievery. So, no, I won't buy a non-DRM game, it's bad value. Of course, a game with broken DRM is bad value, too, which is why consoles and Steam exist.

"I hope you never had satisfaction playing Mario or Zelda games because none of those support quicksave. They just have checkpoint."

Well, 90% of games or something ridiculous, are never finished. So, by not letting people adjust difficulty on the fly, they're just ensuring that no one finishes. Which might be fine. It's not like the game is a novel that has to be finished to be appreciated, after all. I'm sure they don't care if anyone 'experiences' their entire 'artwork', right? There's always cheat codes for the critics and aesthetes among us, right?

Is there room in this thread for somebody who's not excited about this game? I do relish the thought of a PC-centric game developer, particularly one who "gets it" on the DRM issue, but the game itself just doesn't look appealing to me.

No, that minor technical point is hardly critical to his argument. Stealing, while not strictly accurate, is a fair enough shorthand for the act he's actually referring to.

solomonrex wrote:

Those buying the game because of no DRM? You're all suckers. $30 for a DRM-free game just means he could have charged $10 with DRM. Stealing hurts everyone, because if 2/3rds of you steal this for free, I've got to pay 2/3rds more for my game. I have to subsidize your thievery. So, no, I won't buy a non-DRM game, it's bad value. Of course, a game with broken DRM is bad value, too, which is why consoles and Steam exist.

Assumes 1:1 piracy-to-lost-sale ratio. And for that reason, among others, you lose the argument.

PC-only game? Single player? No DRM? These guys are after my heart! I've just pre-ordered this right now on Steam for $27. Thing is, my gaming rig can't play this yet, it needs an upgrade. But I'm happy to pay now to show my support to these guys.

Thanks to the developer/publisher for their attitude. Also, thanks to Ben/Ars for calling out this game, I'd never have paid attention to it on Steam otherwise.